LED having angled sides for increased side light extraction

ABSTRACT

The invention is a method for designing semiconductor light emitting devices such that the side surfaces (surfaces not parallel to the epitaxial layers) are formed at preferred angles relative to vertical (normal to the plane of the light-emitting active layer) to improve light extraction efficiency and increase total light output efficiency. Device designs are chosen to improve efficiency without resorting to excessive active area-yield loss due to shaping. As such, these designs are suitable for low-cost, high-volume manufacturing of semiconductor light-emitting devices with improved characteristics.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/868,009, filedJun. 3, 1997 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,229,160.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the process of designing and fabricatingsemiconductor light-emitting devices. In particular, the invention isdirected towards improving the light extraction efficiency andincreasing the total light output of these devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The extraction efficiency of semiconductor light-emitting devices (LEDs)is limited by the large contrast between the optical refractive indicesof semiconductor materials (n_(s)˜2.2-3.6) and that of the surroundingmedia, typically air (n_(a)˜1.0) or optically transparent epoxy(n_(e)˜1.5). This large difference in refractive indices causes photonswithin the device to have a high probability of beingtotally-internally-reflected (TIR) when impinging on interfaces betweenthe semiconductor and the ambient media.

To illustrate, for a cube of GaP (optically transparent forwavelengths >555 nm) surrounded by epoxy, a photon λ>555 nm within theGaP (n_(s)˜3.3) striking one of the six interfaces with epoxy(n_(e)˜1.5) must impinge at an angle less than θ=˜27°(relative tonormal) to avoid being TIR. This constrained range of angles for whichtransmission is possible defines an “escape cone” for the photon. If thephoton is emitted from within the GaP with an equal probability ofemission in any direction within 4π steradians, the probability ofstriking any of the interfaces within an escape cone is 33%. Accountingfor Fresnel reflection, the probability of the photon actually beingtransmitted into the epoxy is 28.4%.

Commercial LEDs are non-ideal devices that contain many optical lossmechanisms, e.g. active layer re-absorption, absorption within internalepitaxial layers, finite ohmic contact reflectivity, free-carrierabsorption within doped regions. In particular, for devices withemission layers of low internal quantum efficiency, the loss mechanismsdue to the active layer can limit extracted light to only those photonswhich escape the device without making a second pass through the activelayer after emission. This suggests a limit on the achievable extractionefficiency of such devices to not much more than 28.4% (based on theabove calculation). To illustrate, the coefficient of absorption for aband-to-band process at the emission wavelength is on the order of 10⁴cm⁻¹. A photon making a single pass through an emission layer of typicalthickness of 1 μm, has a probability of being absorbed equal to 63%. Forlow quantum efficiency material, the probability of re-emission as aphoton is relatively low, for example ˜10%. Thus the first-orderprobability of the initial photon being absorbed and converted to anon-radiative process is 57%. The problem is exacerbated by other lossmechanisms and by the fact that a majority of photon trajectoriestraverse more than just the vertical thickness of the active layer.Thus, much of the light escaping the device is light that is transmittedthrough the semiconductor/ambient interfaces immediately upon firstimpinging such an interface. This light is “first-pass” light. FIG. 1shows a schematic diagram depicting first-pass light and some of theaforementioned photon loss mechanism and paths for escape.“Multiple-pass” light is the light which escapes the chip only aftermultiple encounters with the surfaces of the LED chip.

Some losses can be reduced by decreasing the thickness of thelight-emitting active region and any other absorbing layers. However,fundamental limitations in the materials growth and device physics (e.g.carrier confinement, interfacial recombination) limit the minimumthickness of the active layer at which reasonable radiative efficienciescan be achieved. The selection of the active layer thickness (formaterial of low radiative efficiency) is a trade-off between internalradiative efficiency and extraction efficiency. Devices of the highestattainable extraction efficiencies will arise from semiconductor LEDstructure designs that provide for much of the internally emitted lightbeing first-pass. Indeed, even in structures of relatively high internalquantum efficiency, loss due to ohmic contacts and free-carrierabsorption still compel designs for more first-pass light extraction.One approach to improve light extraction is to modify the shape orgeometry of the chip.

One such shape is the inverted truncated cone device, where the p-njunction is located at or close (within several μm) to the plane oftruncation, as disclosed by Franklin, et al., in the Journal of AppliedPhysics vol. 35,1153 (1964). The device exhibits enhancedforward-directional light emission characteristics and improved externalefficiency. The shaped sidewalls of the conical portion redirect lightimpinging on this surface towards the top surface at near normalincidence. In Infrared Physics 6, 1(1966), Carr determined that there isa minimum top window height beyond which efficiency no longer increasesand further suggests an optimal angle, β_(m)=(π/2−θc)/2, where θ_(c) isthe critical angle for total internal reflection, for maximumefficiency. This analysis neglects internal absorption and secondaryreflections. The light measured is emitted only from the top surface ofthe device. For high-flux applications, these devices (Franklin, et al.and Carr) are sub-optimum in that they do not utilize side-light whichcan be 40% or more of the total extracted light from an LED. Also, thisdevice does not employ a heterojunction and would suffer reducedinjection efficiency at room temperature relative to the published dataat T=77K. Furthermore, the upper extraction window for this homojunctiondevice is not transparent to a substantial portion of the photonsgenerated within the p-n junction active region. With the internalquantum efficiency of GaAs LEDs typically close to 100% (especially atT=77K), the relatively low measured value of external quantum efficiency(<10% in air) indicates that omission of side-light collection and poortransparency are contributing to significantly reduced extractionefficiency in this device design.

In “Sov. Phys. Tech. Phys. 23, 476 (1978)”, Alferov et. al. disclosedanother shaped LED using a double- mesa structure that improvesextraction efficiency by providing bounce paths that avoid the activeregion and back surface of the device for multiple-pass light. Mesaetching of the sidewall surfaces does not allow control over the angleof the sidewalls which is an important parameter for light extractionand die cost. Also, the double mesa device exhibits an area-ratio fromtop surface to active area on the order of 9 or more. This area-ratio isthe number of devices that can be yielded per unit area on a wafer.Since the reduction in area yield (˜9×) is significantly greater thanthe observed gain in extraction efficiency (<3× compared to conventionalgeometries), this device approach is unsuitable for cost-effectivehigh-volume manufacturing.

In U.S. Pat. N0. 5,087,949, issued Feb. 11, 1992, Haitz disclosed an LEDwith diagonal faces for improved light extraction. The active layer inthe LEDs is located nearly adjacent to the larger-area base (away fromthe imaginary apex of the pyramid shape). Consequently, light-emittingregions near the perimeter of the active layer do not fully benefit fromthe angled sides as do the central regions of the active layer.Therefore, the effective extraction efficiency gains in such a deviceare limited.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

By shaping a semiconductor light-emitting device (LED) such that theside surface(s) that are oriented at an angle(s) offset relative to thedirection normal to the plane of the light-emitting layer, the totallight extraction is increased. By employing a p-n heterojunction forhigh injection efficiency, and transparent windows for low-loss opticalextraction out both the top and side surfaces, high total externalquantum efficiencies are achieved. Finally, the device designs andfabrication techniques are suitable to high-volume manufacturing.Methods of providing transparent windows via wafer-bonding and epitaxialregrowth allow precise positioning of the p-n junction and effectcontrol over both device characteristics and yield. The preferred devicedesign improves overall extraction efficiency while maintaining areasonable degree of yielded devices per unit area on a wafer.

The device shape provides an optical path from the active layer to theambient media which minimize encounters with the optical loss mechanismspresent within the device. This function is performed by shapedsidewalls that reflect light towards the top surface of the device towithin the critical angle of transmission to the ambient, and whichfurthermore allow TIR light from the top surface to escape out theshaped sidewalls. Thus first-pass light extraction is increased. Also,while orienting light for transmission into the ambient, the shapedsidewalls also inherently provide a relatively larger volume of low-lossmaterial through which photons may pass a number of times withoutencountering the absorbing active layer or ohmic contact, i.e. thesolid-angle cross-section of the active layer and ohmic contact havebeen reduced relative to the case of a conventional chip. Furthermore,the shaped device does not require excessive multiple passes orprohibitively long mean path-lengths for photons within the devicebefore transmission and so does not suffer as extensively due tofree-carrier absorption.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating light paths in a conventionallight emitting device.

FIG. 2 illustrates a side view of a preferred embodiment.

FIG. 3 exhibits experimental light extraction gains from a preferredembodiment.

FIG. 4 exhibits further experimental light extraction gains from apreferred embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a plan view of a preferred embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a plan view of an alternate embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method of increasing area yield in a preferredembodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates relationships between flux gain and die cost inseveral preferred embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates advantages in a preferred embodiment over the priorart.

FIG. 10 illustrates a side view of another embodiment.

FIG. 11 illustrates an alternate embodiment that has both p and nelectrical contacts with the same surface orientation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A side-view of a preferred embodiment of a semiconductor light-emittingdevice (LED) is shown in FIG. 2. The LED includes a heterostructurecomprising a plurality of p- and n-type doped epitaxial layers 10 grownon a substrate, e.g. GaAs, GaP, or sapphire. The p- and n-type layersare arranged to provide a p-n junction region in or near an activeregion 11. The resulting heterojunction provides for high injectionefficiency at room temperature and is essential for devices inhigh-power applications. The area extent of the p-n junction regiondefines the active device area. For high-flux applications, the activedevice area is preferably greater than 150 mil².

The growth substrate may optionally be removed and replaced viawafer-bonding, e.g. Kish in U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,580, issued Dec. 27,1994, or regrown to provide a new substrate with favoredcharacteristics. This is desirable when the growth substrate absorbs thewavelength of light emitted from the active region. In the presentinvention, wafer-bonding may be used to facilitate the attachment of anarbitrary-thickness transparent window layer. A layer is transparent ifits optical absorption coefficient is less than 20 cm⁻¹ at thewavelength corresponding to the bulk energy bandgap of the material inthe active area.

A transparent substrate or layer 12, a window for light extraction (andcurrent spreading) is the top window layer for the device. Similarly, awindow layer 13 for light extraction (and current spreading) may beattached to the epitaxial layers on the side opposite the top windowlayer by wafer-bonding, epitaxial growth, or regrowth, to become thebottom window layer. This flexibility allows the active layer to bearbitrarily positioned within the device, facilitating the ability totrade off light-output increase vs. active-area yield per unit area on awafer.

Top and bottom electrical ohmic contacts 14, 15 attached to the windowlayers allow injection of electrons and holes into the p-n junctionregion for recombination and the subsequent generation of light from theactive region. For high power applications, the resistance of eithercontact should be less than 2 ohms. Preferably, the specific contactresistance of either contact is less than 5×10⁻⁵ ohms-cm² to provide lowresistance contacts with smaller areas. This allows one to minimizeocclusion and absorption caused by the contacts. The p- and n-type ohmiccontacts may be made on a single surface orientation of the device tominimize wire-bond connections and to reduce light occlusion caused by atop contact.

The top window layer need not be conductive, and may consist of undopedsemiconductor material, crystalline or poly-crystalline, or amorphousmaterial with suitable properties, or partially so, consisting ofmultiple layers with different characteristics. The material and thelight-emitting layer preferably have similar refractive indices.Additionally, one or both of the contacts may be made to any or all ofthe side surfaces of the device.

In a preferred embodiment, the sidewalls 16 of the primary window areoriented at an angle (or angles) β relative to the vertical directionsuch that the area extent of the top surface 17 is greater than that ofthe active device area. The sidewall makes an oblique angle with respectto the heterostructure. β need not be constant as a function of deviceheight (as shown in FIG. 2), but may vary continuously according todevice height to result in either partially or wholly concave or convexsidewall shapes. The sidewall orientation causes light which strikes thesidewalls to be TIR into an escape cone at the top surface of thedevice, as shown by ray 18 in FIG. 2. Much of the light which is TIR atthe top surface is redirected into an escape cone at the sidewalls,shown by ray 19. Side light accounts for ˜40% or more of the totalexternally emitted light. This results in an increase in first-passlight extraction.

The relative increase in surface area of the semiconductor/ambientinterfaces relative to that of the top contact or of the active regionreduces the probability of a photon being absorbed at those regions.This latter effect is more noticeable as the angle β and the heighth_(T) of the transparent top-window layer are increased. Although theoverall light extraction theoretically increases with increasing β andh_(T), practical limitations arise in the choice of values of theseparameters.

To illustrate, for an active region area of 20 mils ×20 mils, thepreferred dimensions are a sidewall angle β=20°-50° and top-windowheight h_(T)=2 to 15 mils. The upper limits on β and h_(T) are chosenwith regards to maintaining a reasonable area-yield per wafer. Withinthis geometry, it is possible to improve the light extraction ofupwardly-emitted light from the active layer by a factor of about 1.8relative to a conventional device. Accounting for the downward-emittedlight, which does not initially see the same effect, the overall effecton light extraction is on the order of 1.4. For finite absorption in theactive layer and a reflective back contact, the extraction-efficiencygain of the top window is also observed by downward-emitted light, sothat the gains over conventional devices may approach a factor of 1.5 ormore. Even so, if absorption associated with the light-emitting layer isgreater than 50% per pass, downward-emitted light cannot be expected tobe efficiently redirected towards the top window. There is a benefit toproviding a bottom window 13 for light extraction, as depicted in FIG.2. This window layer should be thick enough to allow an appreciableamount of first-pass light escape out the sides of the device, whileallowing a large enough bottom surface for mounting stability andheat-sinking. This layer may be 2-10 mils thick, and is preferably10-40% of the lateral width of the active region in thickness. Thisdesign choice provides for significant out-coupling of light through thesides of the bottom window while maintaining an aspect-ratio thatprovides for mechanical stability. A practitioner of the art willappreciate that all dimensions scale with the area of the active region.This concept is extendable to other geometries.

Experimental observations of increased light output from shaped devicesare shown in FIG. 3. These devices have a square active area (shown inFIG. 5) and four side surfaces angled at 35° relative to normal (shownin FIG. 2). The top window thickness (above the active region) is ˜200μm and the bottom window thickness (below the active region) is ˜50 μm.Light output gains of 1.4×-1.8× are observed for these shaped devicesrelative to conventional devices (rectangular parallelipiped geometry)from the same wafer. All devices were encapsulated in epoxy (n˜1.5). Itcan be seen from FIG. 3 that relative light output gains are observedfor a wide range of wavelengths, while the absolute efficiencies dependsimply on the choice of starting material.

For devices with the active layer in close proximity (within 20% of theactive-area width in thickness) to the bottom of the device, it ispreferable to provide a highly reflecting back contact in order toachieve the highest extraction efficiency gains. Experimental data onlight output of inverted truncated pyramid devices is shown in FIG. 4.Using full-sheet alloyed AuZn as a back contact, light output suffersdue to the poor reflectivity provided by such a contact. Instead, byusing a patterned AuZn back contact (˜20% area coverage) in conjunctionwith reflective Ag-based die-attach epoxy (total angle-averagedreflectivity >˜50%), total light output is increased by ˜20%.

The side view in FIG. 2 is commensurate with a variety of devicegeometries. A plan view i shown in FIG. 5 for a square or rectangularbase. In this inverted truncated-pyramid device, there are four distinctsidewalls of the device that are oriented at an angle (or angles) βrelative to vertical. The device may be fabricated by sawing the devicewafer using a saw-blade with a beveled (“V-shaped”) cutting profile todefine the slant for the sidewalls. Instead the device may be fabricatedby masking a portion of the wafer and forming the desired geometry bysandblasting, and by controlling the angles by varying the parameters ofthe sandblast operation. Further, the angles may be defined by scribingpreferentially along specified crystallographic planes to form apreferred device geometry.

Another method is to suitably mask a portion of the LED wafer and formthe geometry by dry or wet etching. The crystallographic nature of thesubstrate may be important in these cases. For example, (111) GaP may bewafer-bonded to the epitaxial layers to provide the top window layer.This material may be etched or cleaved to expose angled crystal facetsthat provide the angled side-surfaces for improved light extraction in alight-emitting device. If desired, the window layer may be attached bywafer bonding by including an intermediary material (e.g., transparentITO, very thin layer of AuGe, or AuZn) to facilitate a wafer-bondedinterface that is conductive and reasonably transparent. Thecrystallographic orientation of the substrate is chosen to effectreasonable control over chip shaping without compromising other deviceperformance characteristics. After any initial “rough” shapingprocesses, it may be necessary to use “fine” shaping processes to arriveat the final desired shape and/or to produce very smooth sidewalls thatare desired for a properly functioning device. In other embodiments, thedevice may have a different number of shaped side surfaces, e.g. threesurfaces for an inverted truncated triangular-pyramid device.Photoelectrochemical etching may also be used to either shape orsingulate the devices. Many device geometries will work under theprinciple of the present teaching, with a chosen geometry determined bythe requirements of a specific device application and by cost andmanufacturing considerations.

A plan view of an alternate embodiment is shown in FIG. 6. The invertedtruncated-cone has a base that is circular (in general, elliptical).This device may be formed or approximated by proper processing of thematerial by any of the methods aforementioned. The radiation patternfrom the conical device is axially symmetric and is advantageous forfocusing or de-focusing with packaging or secondary optics.

A device with angled side-surfaces exhibits an increase in area-ratio ofthe maximum extent of the device (the top device area) relative to theactive area. For a given choice of active area, this results in areduction of the number of available devices per unit of area on a wafer(relative to conventional geometries). The importance lies in the factthat the epitaxial layers comprising the active layer and the p-njunction are typically the most expensive cost driver for the wafer.This area yield reduction increases as the top window height isincreased. It also increases as the sidewall angle is increased. For awafer being diced into inverted truncated-pyramid devices using beveledsawing (shown in FIG. 7), if the active layer is 50 μm from the top of awafer (during dicing) that is 250 μm thick (position 1), and the dicingindex is 500 μm, then the device yield per wafer for an invertedtruncated-pyramid device with β=30° would be roughly 29% relative to aconventional device. Placing the active layer closer to the bottom ofthe wafer during dicing , e.g. 200 μm from the wafer bottom (position2), the device area yield increases to ˜78%. That is, as the junction ismoved away from the bottom of the device, the area yield loss is reduced(increasing the number of devices per wafer and thus, improving thecost-effectiveness of this device). Of course, the extraction efficiencyof the device may also be reduced since the top window height of thedevice is effectively decreased. However, the decrease in efficiencywith junction placement will be less severe as the absorption of theactive layer is reduced (either by increasing the internal quantumefficiency of the active layer or by decreasing the active layerthickness) since photons may survive more passes through the activelayer before being absorbed without re-emission. For example, inreducing the active layer thickness from 1.0 to 0.1 μm, the increase intransmission per pass (vertically) is from 37% to 90%. Cost-effectivesolutions must account for junction placement, sidewall angle, windowheight(s), and internal efficiency of the active area along with lossmechanisms, e.g. absorbing ohmic contacts, for proper device design.This is one aspect of the present invention. It is preferable to have awide range of control over junction placement within the device.Positioning the location of the junction allows the design of an LEDwith a large extraction efficiency improvement (>1.4×) that more closelymatches the added cost of manufacturing due to active-area yield loss.Based on the expected light output gains (>1.4×), it is preferable tomaintain an area yield >33%.

There are several arguments for maintaining an area-yield due tochip-shaping that is greater than 33%. For one, typical yields forhigh-volume fabrication of mature-technology LEDs are in the range of30-50%. It is preferable to maintain an area-yield that is at least onpar with that of conventional LED yields so that shaping alone does notput a hard upper-limit on achievable improvements in yields. Secondly,we have fabricated many shaped LEDs with geometries that correspond toarea-yields >33% and which exhibit extraction efficiency gains >1.4×over conventional devices. Finally, for certain systems applications itis acceptable to triple the die-cost in exchange for a 40% gain inefficiency, especially since the die-cost makes up only a fraction ofthe total cost of the system.

In the trade-off between yield and extraction efficiency, acost-effective solution is possible by changing device height, sidewallangle, and junction position parameters. Device height is controlled bysubstrate thickness , e.g. sawing, lapping, polishing, or etching, orlayer growth times. Sidewall angle is determined by the fabricationtechnique, and can be very well-defined, e.g. beveled sawing,photoelectrochemical etching, or crystallographic etching. Junctionposition is controlled by growth times to a certain extent (epitaxialwindows), but the full range of junction positions is more readilyobtained by varying the thickness of wafer-bonded layers. For example,the active layer may be positioned almost exactly in the center of a8-mil high device by simply wafer-bonding 4-mil substrates on eitherside.

A consequence of device geometry on total flux gain including area yieldis illustrated in FIG. 8. Here is plotted, on the y-axis, experimentaltotal flux gain (in lumens) for inverted truncated pyramid LEDs (β=35°)divided by the area-ratio of the top extent of the device relative tothe active area. This area-ratio is inversely proportional to the numberof devices available per wafer and is thus directly proportional to thecost of manufacture of the LED die. Thus, the y-axis is essentially theratio of total flux gain vs. die-cost relative to counterpartconventional devices (vertical sidewalls) all driven at the same currentdensity of 107.7 A/cm². The x-axis is the geometric aspect ratio(top-window height divided by active region width) of the pyramid LEDs.FIG. 8 illustrates the general trend of reduced flux per monetary unit(MU) as the aspect ratio of the device increases., For a fixed activeregion width, the trend suggests that a thinner top window will providea more favorable situation in terms of flux per MU. The top window mustbe thick enough to meet the extraction efficiency requirements of theapplication. For example, for the conventional device, the flux/costratio is 1.0 (obviously, as we have normalized to this!). But there isno gain in extraction efficiency for the conventional device. Also, thedie-cost increase has been exaggerated because kerf loss associated withmanufacture of the conventional LEDs has been neglected. Furthermore,since the die-cost is only a fraction of the cost of a finished LEDlamp, the flux per MU situation is in fact much better (in terms ofnumbers) than illustrated in FIG. 8 for the shaped LEDs. Proper devicedesign must achieve the appropriate balance between flux per MU andminimum required extraction efficiency which varies from application toapplication.

FIG. 9 illustrates an improvement of the present invention over theprior art. The x-axis is area-ratio of the top-surface extent of adevice relative to the active area (˜die-cost). The y-axis isextraction-efficiency divided the area-ratio, and is essentially ameasure of the cost of light-output efficiency in a device (lumen peramp per MU). The two diamond-shaped points are from the prior art andare plotted using measured external quantum efficiencies (in air) as thenumbers for extraction efficiency (i.e. assuming 100% internal quantumefficiency, which is reasonable for these devices and testingconditions). The third data point (square and error bars) in FIG. 9corresponds to the present invention and is for an invertedtruncated-pyramid LED (β=35°, h_(T)=8.5 mils, AlInGaP LED at 636 nm).Since the internal quantum efficiency of the AlInGaP LED is less than100% (as is known in the art), the extraction efficiency is estimatedfrom experimental light output gains over conventional (rectangularparallelipiped) AlInGaP LEDs from the same material. In this case, thedevice has an extraction efficiency in the range of ˜18-22% and, bydesign, an area-ratio <3. Note that this device exhibits an improvedrelationship between efficiency and cost relative to the devices of theprior art. The device described by Alferov, while exhibiting highexternal quantum efficiency, would have an excessive die-cost (>9×)based upon the chosen geometry. The device of Franklin et. al. employsan acceptable geometry in term of die-cost but suffers from poorexternal quantum efficiency due to lack of side-light extraction andpoor window transparency. It is clear that device designs within thepresent teaching result in substantial improvement in the relationshipbetween efficiency and cost and have significant implications for use ofLEDs in many applications.

FIG. 10 depicts a side view of another embodiment. The shaped sidewallsare coated with a highly reflective thin film 30 that may be metallic ordielectric or some combination thereof to inhibit light from escapingout the side-surfaces of the device and promote light exiting throughthe top surface. The optical design for the packaging scheme is simplersince all light is emitted from a single planar surface. The opticalpackage does not require a highly reflecting mounting surface for theLED because there is no backward-traveling light to be redirected.Furthermore, a portion of the reflective thin film coating may be one ofthe ohmic electrical contacts to the device to eliminate a wire-bondattachment to a top contact at the device top surface. This reducesreliability problems associated with the wire-bond, removes thewire-bonding step from the manufacturing process, and eliminatestop-contact occlusion for light within the device. This contactingscheme may include transparent ITO as an ohmic contact which issubsequently covered with dielectric or metal layers to provide highreflectivity. Alternatively, the shaped side surfaces may be coated withan anti-reflective coating; typically a dielectric (e.g., SiO₂, Si₃N₄,Al₂O₃) thin film or a multi-layer stack of dielectric films as is knownin the art or disclosed in the Handbook of Optics, by Driscoll et al.(McGraw-Hill, New York, 1978) sections 8.1-8.124.

FIG. 11 depicts another preferred embodiment, the electrical contacts toboth sides of the p-n junction are formed on the bottom mountingsurfaces of the device. There is no occlusion from a top contact and norequirement for a wire-bond for forming a current path in the packageddevice. The contact geometry and current-spreading is such thatreasonably uniform injection into the active layer is achieved. Since noconduction path is required through the top window layer, the top windowlayer need not be doped. This layer need not be a semiconductor, but maybe any transparent material that may be attached to the epitaxial layersto form an optical interface for light extraction from the device activeregion.

We claim:
 1. A light-emitting diode structure comprising: a multi-layerheterostructure, including a window portion and an active layer forgenerating light, said multi-layer heterostructure having asubstantially flat surface for emitting light, said window portion beingsubstantially transparent and having at least portions of one or moresides of said window portion at an oblique angle with respect to saidsubstantially flat surface, wherein said oblique angle is selected toincrease the amount of light escaping from said sides of said windowportion and wherein a surface of said active layer has an area greaterthan an area of a surface of said window portion facing away from saidactive layer, wherein a thickness of said window portion is equal to orgreater than 50 microns, and wherein said oblique angle is equal to orgreater than 20 degrees, said oblique angle being measured as an anglebetween an outer surface of said one or more sides of said windowportion and a direction normal to said substantially flat surface ,wherein a primary light output service of said diode is other than asurface of said window portion.
 2. The diode of claim 1 wherein saidwindow portion is at least a portion of a substrate.
 3. The diode ofclaim 1 wherein said window portion is a semiconductor.
 4. The diode ofclaim 1 wherein said window portion is a primary light output window forsaid light-emitting diode.
 5. The diode of claim 1 further comprising afirst ohmic contact formed on said window portion and a second ohmiccontact formed on an opposite side of said heterostructure for providingelectrical current through said diode.
 6. The diode of claim 1 whereinsaid oblique angle is constant.
 7. The diode of claim 1 furthercomprising a reflective electrical contact formed on a surface of saidheterostructure opposite a primary light output surface of said diode.8. The diode of claim 1 wherein said window portion has a thicknessbetween 50 and 250 microns.
 9. The diode of claim 1 wherein said amountof light escaping from said sides of said window portion is greater thanapproximately 40% of the total light emitted by said diode.
 10. Thediode of claim 1 wherein said oblique angle is between 20 and 50degrees.
 11. The diode of claim 1 wherein said window portion has alight emitting surface parallel to said active layer, said surfacehaving a shape selected from the group consisting of a square, a circle,a rectangle, and a triangle.
 12. The diode of claim 1 wherein the ratioof the area of a surface of said window portion parallel to said activelayer to a single surface area of said active layer is less than
 3. 13.The diode of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of one or more sides ofsaid window portion is flat.
 14. The diode of claim 1 wherein saidportions of one or more sides of said window portion at an oblique anglewith respect to said substantially flat surface are characterized byhaving been produced by sawing.
 15. The diode of claim 1 wherein athickness of said window portion is 10% to 40% of a lateral width ofsaid active region.
 16. A light-emitting diode structure comprising: amulti-layer heterostructure, including a window portion and an activelayer for generating light, said multi-layer heterostructure having asubstantially flat surface for emitting light, said window portion beingsubstantially transparent and having at least portions of one or moresides of said window portion at an oblique angle with respect to saidsubstantially flat surface and extending outward as said window portionapproaches said active layer, wherein said oblique angle is selected toincrease the amount of light escaping from said sides of said windowportion, wherein a thickness of said window portion is equal to orgreater than 50 microns, and wherein said oblique angle is equal to orgreater than 20 degrees, said oblique angle being measured as an anglebetween an outer surface of said one or more sides of said windowportion and a direction normal to said substantially flat surface,wherein a primary light output surface of said diode is other than asurface of said window portion.
 17. The diode of claim 16 wherein saidwindow portion is at least a portion of a substrate.
 18. The diode ofclaim 16 wherein said window portion is a semiconductor.
 19. The diodeof claim 16 wherein said window portion is a primary light output windowfor said light-emitting diode.
 20. The diode of claim 16 comprising afirst ohmic contact formed on said window portion and a second ohmiccontact formed on an opposite side of said heterostructure for providingelectrical current through said diode.
 21. The diode of claim 16 whereinsaid oblique angle is constant.
 22. The diode of claim 16 furthercomprising a reflective electrical contact formed on a surface of saidheterostructure opposite a primary light output surface of said diode.23. The diode of claim 16 wherein said window portion has a thicknessbetween 50 and 250 microns.
 24. The diode of claim 16 wherein saidamount of light escaping from said sides of said window portion isgreater than approximately 40% of the total light emitted by said diode.25. The diode of claim 16 wherein said oblique angle is between 20 and50 degrees.
 26. The diode of claim 16 wherein said window portion has alight emitting surface parallel to said active layer, said surfacehaving a shape selected from the group consisting of a square, a circle,a rectangle, and a triangle.
 27. The diode of claim 16 wherein the ratioof the area of a surface of said window portion parallel to said activelayer to a single surface of said active layer is less than
 3. 28. Thediode of claim 16 wherein at least a portion of one or more sides ofsaid window portion is flat.
 29. The diode of claim 16 wherein saidportions of one or more sides of said window portion at an oblique anglewith respect to said substantially flat surface are characterized byhaving been produced by sawing.
 30. The diode of claim 16 wherein athickness of said window portion is 10% to 40% of a lateral width ofsaid active region.
 31. A light-emitting diode structure comprising: amulti-layer heterostructure, including a window portion and an activelayer for generating light, said multi-layer heterostructure having asubstantially flat surface for emitting light, said window portion beingsubstantially transparent and having at least portions of one or moresides of said window portion at an oblique angle with respect to saidsubstantially flat surface, wherein said oblique angle is selected toincrease the amount of light escaping from said sides of said windowportion, wherein a thickness of said window portion is equal to orgreater than 50 microns, and wherein said oblique angle is equal to orgreater than 20 degrees, said oblique angle being measured as an anglebetween an outer surface of said one or more sides of said windowportion and a direction normal to said substantially flat surface, and;a reflector attached to another surface of said heterostructure, saidother surface located opposite to and having an area smaller than saidsubstantially flat surface for emitting light.
 32. The diode of claim 31wherein said reflector includes an electrical contact for providingelectrical current through said diode.
 33. The diode of claim 31 whereinsaid reflector includes an epoxy containing silver.
 34. The diode ofclaim 31 wherein said window portion is at least a portion of asubstrate.
 35. The diode of claim 31 wherein said window portion is asemiconductor.
 36. The diode of claim 31 wherein said window portion isa primary light output window for said light-emitting diode.
 37. Thediode of claim 31 further comprising a first ohmic contact formed onsaid window portion and a second ohmic contact formed on an oppositeside of said heterostructure for providing electrical current throughsaid diode.
 38. The diode of claim 31 wherein said oblique angle isconstant.
 39. The diode of claim 31 wherein window portion has athickness between 50 and 250 microns.
 40. The diode of claim 31 whereinsaid amount of light escaping from said sides of said window portion isgreater than approximately 40% of the total light emitted by said diode.41. The diode of claim 31 wherein said oblique angle is between 20 and50 degrees.
 42. The diode of claim 31 wherein said window portion has alight emitting surface parallel to said active layer, said surfacehaving a shape selected from the group consisting of a square, a circle,a rectangle, and a triangle.
 43. The diode of claim 31 wherein the ratioof the area of a surface of said window portion parallel to said activelayer to a single surface area of said active layer is less than
 3. 44.The diode of claim 31 wherein a primary light output surface of saiddiode is other than a surface of said window portion.
 45. The diode ofclaim 31 wherein at least a portion of one or more sides of said windowportion is flat.
 46. The diode of claim 31 wherein said portions of oneor more sides of said window portion at an oblique angle with respect tosaid substantially flat surface are characterized by having beenproduced by sawing.
 47. The diode of claim 31 wherein a thickness ofsaid window portion is 10% to 40% of a lateral width of said activeregion.